Southern Heat Exchanger Co. (SHECO) has been expanding its operations in North America for more than a decade, and the past two years have been no exception. The company has invested in new equipment and processes as well as new facilities, adding a manufacturing facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and upgrading to a much larger and newer facility in Houston. All these upgrades and investments are undertaken with one goal in mind: to be the “First Choice” manufacturer of quality heat exchanger products in North America.
“When it comes to heat exchangers — be they complex, heavy and high-pressure, more standard units, or situations where speed is critical and a local supplier offers a real benefit — we’re poised to better serve our customers with our new expanded and upgraded Houston facility,” said Rick Shimonek, operations manager for SHECO Houston.
“SHECO’s objective is to be our customers’ ‘First Choice’ when choosing heat exchanger equipment,” said SHECO CEO Bob Giammaruti. “We do this by our dedication to daily continuous improvement, deep engineering knowledge and commitment to providing the highest-quality products on time, with outstanding service before, during and after each sale.”
SHECO’s Houston facility has long been well known in the agrichemical industry for high-specification work with thick-walled, low-chrome shells and high-alloy internals. Designed for high-pressure and high-temperature service, units built for this service tend to be very large. Another core strength of SHECO is its commitment to world-class customer service. Simply put, SHECO designs and builds high-quality products on budget and on time. This isn’t just something the SHECO team says; it’s something they deliver — and their customers notice.
“A little more than a year ago, we worked with SHECO to get out of a jam,” recounted David R. Ramble, reliability and technology manager at Iowa Fertilizer Co. “Just prior to pre-commissioning an ammonia plant, we discovered a major problem while inspecting the equipment. One of our critical heat exchangers in high-pressure service that we had sourced overseas had numerous failed tubes. This was a long-lead item, and this issue risked putting the entire project behind schedule. We had to minimize the time impact.
“After a business assessment, and with input from SHECO, we made the decision to have SHECO fabricate a completely new exchanger. Not only did they offer a competitive price, but they were able to meet the critical schedule we needed while maintaining the high-quality work required for this demanding unit. This was a very large exchanger, in excess of 175 tons and with specialty alloys. SHECO reviewed the existing engineering design, procured materials and fabricated the unit. They also provided a unique and effective solution for inserting the u-tube bundle, which improved the schedule, alleviated stress on the bundle and minimized the potential for damage to the shell that would have caused significant delays.
We were unfamiliar with their method, but they assured us they had done it many times before while building similar units — and it worked very well. SHECO’s level of expertise allowed them to have the unit built and delivered to the site in the Midwest in nine months — no small feat for a unit this large and complex.
“All in all, I would say SHECO has a ton of experience on their design team, multiple facilities to spread a project around and a very experienced fabrication staff. These features were key elements in our decision to move forward with this project, and we are glad we did! SHECO is a fun and professional team to work with, from their president at the top to the fabrication team on the shop floor, and all levels in between.” So, if you need help with heat exchangers, field service or field machining, SHECO should be your “First Choice.”
For more information, visit www.Sheco.com or call (205) 345-5335.
Additional facts regarding the upgraded and expanded Houston facility:
- Substantial capacity: 55,000-square-foot facility running two shifts with 24/7 capability.
- Multiple submerged arc welding (SAW) stations and positioners with single-point and strip-overlay capability.
- Overhead crane capacity of 50 tons, with the ability to lift much heavier units with gantries. SHECO’s Houston facility has built units up to 175 tons.
- Reboiler exchanger with 10,000 tubes for Gulf Coast petrochemical manufacturer.
- Single-pass floating-head exchanger for high-pressure agrichem service.
- Air-cooled heat exchanger bundle assembly.
- Inspection and receiving area with in-house PMI (positive material identification) equipment.
- Experienced quality control and supervisory personnel leading SHECO’s Quality at the Source and Continuous Improvement programs.
- Local machining capability.
- Welding capabilities include GTAW (gas tungsten arc welding), SAW, SMAW (shielded metal arc welding), GMAW (gas metal arc welding) and orbital tube-end welding.
Additional corporate capability:
- Full in-house thermal and mechanical design team with experience and depth.
- State-of-the-art CNC (computer numeric control) plate cutting, forming and machining capability.
- Five plants in three locations — Houston, Texas; Tuscaloosa, Alabama; and Tulsa, Oklahoma — with more than 200,000 square feet of manufacturing floor space.
